Amsterdam 17 January 2007 – On Friday 26 January 2007 at 20.00 the exhibition ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ by Martin Butler will open at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Martin Butler presents four human avatars to play with. Using Skype you can log in at home with your character of choice. Direct the avatar, explore the space and challenge him or her. The avatars of The Girlfriend Experience will be available every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 20:00- 23:00. They can also be observed live in the Analog Villa, the Mediamatic Exhibition space, at the ground floor of the Post CS building in Amsterdam.

The rampant growth of online avatar communities such as Second Life and World of Warcraft has enabled the creation of a personal online social and economic existence. Simultaneously this triggers inherent questions about this existence, as it questions what the consequences will be for first life, or reality.

When you use virtual avatars you can do as you please. In The Girlfriend Experience you will have to get to know each other first. Player and avatar explore what they can do for each other and how far the avatar wants to go to execute specific desires. It is ambiguous who is really controlling the situation. You have ten minutes to figure out what you can do with your avatar. After that, your time is up and another player can take your place.

More here. (Thanks to Hylton Joliffe for the link.) [Tags: avatars art games everything_is_miscellaneous ]